How's Vorpal for Judgement?

I see alot of people using Ion which doesn't fit thematically very well with my spines/wp scrapper.

Was wondering if Vorpal was any good? I know it is smashing damage which is highly resisted by alot of mobs but in higher tiers it can also add defense buff which my character is in need of badly. (Always eating purples it seems)

So has anyone had any experience with it? If so what are your thoughts on it?

The idea behind the Radial Vorpal powers that provide the DEF buff is an interesting one. Since the buff itself only lasts 10 seconds and you can only get it once every few minutes it's definitely something you'd want to tailor to the type of character you're using it on. I wouldn't really factor it in as a primary source of DEF - at best it's icing on the cake not the cake itself.

I can see some value to this if you plan on using it as an Alpha strike for a melee/Tank type character. You run up to the MOB, fire off the Vorpal just before you engage, then charge on into the melee. You just have to accept that as a "Nova" power it's not going to do as much damage as most of the other Judgement options.

I use it on my main and it seems to work pretty well. The 'targeting' mechanic for it is different from (I think) every other power in the game. You have to think of it as a HUGE (80-120 ft) and WIDE (80-120 deg) arc directly in front of you. It doesn't matter what you have targeted at all, it only does what is directly in front of you so some manual aiming of your character is required. Once you get used to it, it works very well due to the massive area, but its manual aiming is something to get used to.

Its also pretty quick at animating and a less flashy than the other judgments, which is good for some character concepts.

I have Vorpal Judgement on my StJ/Regen Brute.

I like it but agree with AquaJAWS; it is something you have to get used to (the lining up of the power/etc).

The +DEF is nice for my Regen. toon too

ok thanks for the thoughts and advice guys..think I will give it a try then. Appreciate it!

Vorpal's a lot of fun

I find my target then once I'm facin them often run back a bit to line up. Also there's a Face Target keybind in the options menu I believe so try that

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

Vorpal is very good. You have to be a little careful with aiming it, since it just fires wherever you're facing, which takes some getting used to. Still, it's the only judgement where I think both the Core and Radial path are excellent; Core gets a bonus DoT like Pyronic's, and Radial gets the defense buff as mentioned.

It's also worth noting that smashing damage is not nearly so widely resisted as lethal; many enemies (mostly robots) actually have negative smashing resistance.

I hope this img works on these forums, if not I apologize. But this is my character (in sig) mid-Vorpal. I honestly LOVE this power

Vorpal Radial is what I would like to call a "soft mez". The other radial judgements have direct mezz with holds, slows, stuns, endurance drain, and stuff like that. But if you open on a group with Vorpal Radial, you'll draw their aggro while you have an increased defense. This makes whatever survives waste their alpha on you, effectively disabling the group.

I use Vorpal Radial on my Tank and my Bane, and it is awesome. It has that whole "I kick your butt faster than a blink of the eye" thing.

As a Spines scrapper I would say don't overlook pyro.

It's cast time is rather longish (2.5s before arcanatime, compared to Pyronic's 1s animation) and the aiming of it can be finicky. With that said it can be nice as far as a defensive judgment goes, as it can either absorb an alpha or reset cascading defense failure.